By Donna Westfall – October 15, 2016 – Before we start listing some of the people coming out of the woodwork stating that they too have been banned; let’s read what Michael J. Ceremello, Jr. has to say. He’s the former Vice-Mayor/Councilman from the City of Dixon. He writes a regular column for the Independent Voice. Here’s his initial volley to Fornoff:
October 12, 2016
Ms. Fornoff,
You as the editor of a paper should respect the ability of citizens of our once great country to express their views especially when documented with facts. The purpose of the fourth column or Fifth Estate is to expose the sins of those in government rather than working as their shill to cover up their transgressions.
I would suggest you rethink your position on this First Amendment right. There is a fine line between not allowing views repugnant to your own and the freedom of the press to choose what they will or will not print. I prefer the old adage “I may not like what you have to say but I will defend your right to say it to my death.” Evidently your ideals are somewhat beneath this.
Michael J. Ceremello, Jr.
The next day Mike gets this reply:
Michael,
Thank you for expressing your concerns. My decision stands.
(Mr.) Robin Fornoff
Editor
Del Norte Triplicate
Crescent City, CA 95531
And Mike responds the same day with:
But of course it does. So if I submitted the same letter with my name on it, you would print it because I do not write for the online paper? Do you know how ridiculous this is?
If you deny me the ability to submit it because you know who really wrote it, then you have just verified you are a shill working for the government establishment, attempting and succeeding in keeping your subscribers in the dark.
You should be very proud of yourself.
MJC
No further response from Robin Fornoff.
But, Mike Ceremello couldn’t get his letters published by the Triplicate because his columns have appeared in www.crescentcitytimes.com (CCT for short). Samuel Strait writes that he has been banned since February of this year. When Linda Sutter found out she was banned, she contacted some of her supporters in her bid for 5th District Supervisor primary. She found out that at least 10 of their Letters to the Editor were not published by Fornoff. Others have notified me that they have been banned for their content, their political leanings, accused of being a spy on the Democrats, coming out as gay, and the list goes on.
So are we to assume that anyone connected to CCT is banned? I tried paying $234.38 for this ad to run on page 3 in Saturday’s edition and was told in no uncertain terms by Cindy Vosburg at the Triplicate that they would not print it unless I changed the content. So I asked Cindy, “What if I change hundreds to dozen’s?” She replied, “No, still won’t print it.”
And, finally, I found out that it gets down to this. Fornoff is sick and tired of being bashed by the CCT. Cindy Vosburg is sick and tired of the articles trashing the Triplicate that appear in the CCT.
Oh my, we’ve hurt their feelings.
Well, tough toenails. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. You’re a newspaper for God’s sake. Act like one.
yep, they feel the cct is competition. uh, how is it competition when the cct is free and the triplicate charges?
Donna, all done with changes to my domain records. You’ll be receiving some extra traffic to your website shortly. The changes are “live”. I’m fairly busy on projects, but I figure this might help you out a bit. 🙂
Donna, I am redirecting all inbound traffic from the following domains DelNorteOnline.com, Del-Norte.net, Del-Norte.org and Crecent-City.net to CrescentCityTimes.com until my website is online. Once my website is online, I’ll be providing you a dedicated column where you can write in any time you wish. To date, most of everything i’ve read that you’ve written has been pretty much true and documented.